Frank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor by Jon Scieszka (review)

Science geek and amateur inventor Frank Einstein is certain that his creation of a Smartbot, an independently thinking robot, will land him the $100,000 Midville Science Prize that will enable him to pay off his Grampa Al’s bills for good. Unfortunately, a lightning storm puts the kibosh on his experiment, and Frank goes to bed thinking he’s left with a fried toaster and ruined plans. He wakes up, however, to find Klink and Klank, two “self assembled artificial entities” (okay, Klank is “mostly self assembled,” since he needed some help) made up of bits of stopwatches, video games, toasters, exercise equipment, Shop Vacs, and whatever else happened to get thrown into the mix. Since they won’t work as entries for the contest (he didn’t technically create them), Frank decides to enlist their help in making his ultimate invention, an antimatter motor—but will his dreaded arch nemesis and fellow kid genius T. Edison thwart his plans? Scieszka strikes just the right balance between goofy humor and technical jargon, a combination that will particularly please the geek squad as they giggle over antimatter jokes and nod along to allusions to scientific discoveries and history. The characters aren’t particularly deep, but there’s a warmth to Frank’s relationships with Grampa Al and his best friend Watson, and the two robots play the ideal odd couple with their Felix and Oscar–like repartee. Cartoony illustrations add to the humor and diagram some of the more complex concepts. This series open is sure to find fans among kids who spend most their time in the 609s.